1. Field of the Invention
Wire Insulation Stripping Device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
During the past few years electrical conducting wire has come into widespread use in which an electrical conducting member is enveloped in a sheath of extremely tough, resilient electrical insulation. The stripping of a section of such insulation from a free end portion of a wire is extremely difficult.
Insulations of the above mentioned type that are extremely tough and resilient may be thermoplastic resins having a polyurothane base. Commercially available resins that are extremely tough and resilient, and are used for wire insulation, include but are not limited to those presently sold commercially under the trademarks: TEFZEL; KAPTON; TEFLON; MILINE; MYLAR; NYLON; and KYNER.
The severence of sections of electrical insulation of the above described type from the free end portion of a wire is extremely difficult, if not impossible, with prior art insulation stripping tools. Such prior art devices are typified by the wire insulation stripper disclosed and claimed in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,180,184 that issued Apr. 27, 1965 under the title, WIRE INSULATION STRIPPER. When said strippers are used in an attempt to remove a section of insulation from a free end portion of a wire, and the insulation is tough and extremely resilient, the stripping is unsatisfactory, in that only a semi-circular cut is made in the insulation by the device. When such a prior art tool is moved parallel to the wire, the unsevered portion of the insulation adjacent the semi-circular cut simply stretches, and it is impossible to obtain a clean break of the partially severed portion of the insulation from the balance of the insulation that remains in an enveloping position on the wire.
A major object of the present invention is to supply a light weight, portable, insulation stripper that permits a sheath of insulation that is tough and highly resilient to have an end portion thereof removed from the metal conductor it envelops, and the removal taking place after a narrow longitudinal section of the insulation is compressed to a thin wall section by use of the present invention. The thin wall section is then broken by moving the tool parallel to the wire in a direction to tension the thin wall section. After the thin wall section is so severed, the end portion of the insulation sheath may be slid from the wire to expose the electrical conductor previously covered by the removed portion.
Another object of the invention is to supply an insulation stripper that permits an end portion of an insulation sheath to be removed from a wire, and without the electrical conductor covered by the sheath being nicked or otherwise defaced during the insulation removal operation.
A still further object of the invention is to supply an insulation stripper that has an extremely simple mechanical structure, is easy and convenient to use, may be readily carried from place to place, and due to its simplicity of structure, may be retailed at a sufficiently low price as to encourage its widespread use for insulation stripping operations.